Miscellaneous unorganized material/KTEN
KTEN is the NBC-affiliated television station for Southeastern Oklahoma and North Texas that is licensed to Ada, Oklahoma. It broadcasts a high definition digital signal on UHF channel 26 from a transmitter north of Milburn, Oklahoma along OK 7. Owned by the Lockwood Broadcasting Group, the station has studios on High Point Circle in Denison, Texas. Syndicated programming on KTEN includes: Wheel of Fortune, Oprah, Dr. Phil, and Rachael Ray. It has KTEN-DT2 which airs CW programming as "Texoma CW" in SDTV and SDTV Widescreen. KTEN-DT3 airs ABC programming as "ABC Texoma". Digital programming KTEN's signal is multiplexed. They operate the area's CW affiliate on a second digital subchannel. Known on-air as Texoma CW and part of The CW Plus, this can also be seen on CableOne channel 6 in Oklahoma and CableOne channel 9 in Texas. On May 9, 2010, the station converted its third digital subchannel from a doppler radar image to a channel that operates as the area's ABC affiliate which is known on-air as ABC Texoma. History KTEN signed on-the-air in 1954 as the first local television station to serve Texoma. This station, which in recent years has been the area's exclusive NBC affiliate, served as the area's ABC affiliate. This was very unusual for such a small market as ABC was not on par with NBC and CBS at the time. It also carried a secondary NBC affiliation. During the late-1950s, they were also briefly affiliated with the NTA Film Network. [1] By the mid-1970s as arch-rival KXII (which operated from studios in Ardmore, Oklahoma and Sherman, Texas) was switching its primary network affiliation from NBC to CBS, KTEN began adding a larger proportion of NBC programming to its schedule. This included both in daytime and prime time even to the point of broadcasting both network's evening newscasts (ABC's at 5 P.M. and NBC's at 5:30) in the hour preceding the local newscast at 6 p.m. from 1974 to 1980. The station even got national attention in 1983 when on NBC's Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Doc Severinsen (sitting in for Carson's sidekick Ed McMahon) welcomed KTEN as the newest station to broadcast The Tonight Show. This move was made after KXII, by this time down to just two NBC programs in its schedule, had switched to CBS's late night schedule in a move that eventually led that station toward an exclusive CBS affiliation starting with the 1985-86 season. By that time, KTEN was on its way to becoming a primary NBC affiliate but still carried a large proportion of ABC's schedule, incorporating both networks' promotional campaigns. Although KTEN's program schedule appeared to be headed toward an exclusive NBC affiliation by the early-to-mid 1990s, another network move was made along the way. In 1994, KTEN added Fox as another secondary affiliation just after that network had won the rights to broadcast NFL football previously seen on CBS (KXII-TV) for many years. The station was in bankruptcy at the time and gained additional network compensation (cash payments) from Fox. It also allowed KTEN the unique ability to show every single Dallas Cowboys game that was not on cable. However, the downside was that the station was becoming even more of a hybrid with three network affiliations (NBC, ABC, and Fox) and even more confusing to viewers. By 1998, KTEN was out of bankruptcy and the new owners dropped the secondary affiliations with ABC and Fox to make it the area's exclusive NBC affiliate. KTEN was originally based in Ada and is still licensed to that city though the main studios have been located in Denison since 1986. Although this station and arch-rival KXII had theoretically been direct competitors for many years, the 75 mile difference in location between the two stations' transmitters created unequal over-the-air reception conditions with KTEN's picture fair to poor in locations close to KXII's transmitter such as Ardmore, Madill, and Durant as well as almost non-existent in some adjoining areas of Texas. Meanwhile, KXII's over-the-air reception in Ada and surrounding areas was poor due to the northern fringe location of that station's coverage. To become more equally competitive reception-wise, KTEN moved its transmitter from Ada to Milburn in 1984 to provide better over-the-air reception to far Southern Oklahoma near the Red River and to reach across the river to the Sherman/Denison area and adjoining areas of North Texas including Gainesville, Bonham, and Paris. In Fall 2006, its second digital subchannel began airing programming from The CW. KTEN also carries a third digital subchannel which has been broadcasting audio from the National Weather Service while displaying various weather maps of parts of Oklahoma and Texas using four of the nearest weather radars. These radars overlap the Sherman / Ada / Lake Texoma area which KTEN meteorologists use in their forecast presentations. The station does not have access to any radars that are nearer to the location of their studios. Although they air The CW on a digital subchannel and KXII broadcasts Fox and MyNetworkTV on both of their digital subchannels, the Ada/Sherman television market lacked a local ABC affiliate until May 9, 2010, when KTEN brought local ABC programming back to Texoma on their third digital subchannel called ABC Texoma. [2] Prior to that time, ABC programming to the area had been sourced from [WFAA in Dallas-Ft. Worth and KOCO in Oklahoma City depending on the geographic location in the DMA. News operation At some point in the mid-1980s, KTEN took advantage of new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules about translators providing localized content. They opened a small bureau and studio for their Paris translator K08KK and began producing a brief news and weather program that would air during the 10 p.m. news. This was discontinued after a few years due to a lack of advertiser support. In 1985, KTEN added a second studio facility on Merrick Drive in Ardmore, and the following year, opened a third studio in the Katy Depot in Downtown Denison that would also become the station's main studio complex. In 2002, KTEN moved its main studio from the Katy Depot to a new location on U.S. 75 in Denison. The station's operations also include the secondary studio in Ardmore and a sales office in their former home city of Ada. KTEN currently produces 23.5 hours of local news a week (4.5 hours on weekdays and a half-hour each on weekends). Their weekday morning show, KTEN News Today, airs from 5 to 7 with an hour-long midday newscast airing at 11 a.m. that is streamed live on their website and is simulcast on KTEN-DT3. Nightly news broadcasts air at 5, 6, and 10 (the latter of the three is the only newscast airing on weekends, and the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts are simulcast on KTEN-DT3). KTEN began producing a half-hour prime time broadcasts at 9 for its CW subchannel on October 25, 2006 known as Texoma CW News At 9. Like all CW Plus affiliates in the Central Time Zone, that channel also airs the nationally syndicated morning show The Daily Buzz on weekdays from 5 to 8 a.m. KTEN-DT3 airs live newscasts in the event a sporting event or other special programming delays the broadcast of the main channel's newscasts. The news will then also be taped and rebroadcast on KTEN after the event. With the addition of ABC on KTEN-DT3, there will be at least two more local newscasts branded as ABC Texoma News which will require adding additional personnel. News/Station Presentation Newscast titles *''TV-10 News'' (1963-1974) *''Area 10 News'' (1974-1979) *''The News on 10'' (1979-1984) *''News 10'' (1984-1985) *''NewsCenter 10'' (1985-1990) *''KTEN News'' (1990-present) Station slogans News team Anchors *Lisanne Anderson - weeknights at 5, 6 and 10 p.m.; also managing editor and executive producer *Sterling Riggs - weekdays at 4 (on KTEN-DT3), weeknights at 5, 9 (on KTEN-DT2) and 10 p.m.; also *Katy Blakey - weekday mornings and midday *Scott Garner - Sports Director; weeknights at 6 and 9 (on KTEN-DT2), and nightly at 10 p.m. Sky Alert 10 Weather Team *Alan Mitchell (AMS Seal of Approval) - Chief Meteorologist; weeknights at 5, 6, and 10 p.m. *Hallie Shulman - weekday mornings and 11 a.m. and weeknights at 9 (on KTEN-DT2) Reporters *Kris Betts - general assignment reporter; also ABC Texoma producer *Jen French - Denison Newsroom reporter *Deeda Payton - Denison Newsroom reporter *Meredith Saldana - Ardmore Newsroom reporter *Chris Severy - general assignment reporter; also KTEN producer Photographer *Dave Potter - chief photographer Assignment Editor *Gary Carter Former on-air staff References #'^' "Require Prime Evening Time for NTA Films", Boxoffice: 13, November 10, 1956, http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_111056-1 #'^' http://www.tvnewscheck.com/articles/2010/04/06/daily.12/ External links *KTEN channel 26 *KTEN-DT2 "Texoma CW" *KTEN-DT3 "ABC Texoma" *Query the FCC's TV station database for KTEN